Philips Radio
Director Joris Ivens
Countries Netherlands
Duration 36 min
Synopsis
This film was commissioned by Philips to portray the work of the Eindhoven factory which produces radio sets. The only constraint Philips put was that everything had to be shot inside the factory. Nothing could therefore be shown of the workers home conditions. Ivens intention was to construct, in a sense, a documentary "Modern Times", like Chaplin’s film, criticizing the domination of the machine in the capitalist organization of the labour process. Critics said at the time that the film was an act of accusation against the present economic system, denouncing the physical and moral ruin which threatens those workers who are victims of capitalist rationalization and those workers whom the machine has not yet freed from certain forms of labour.
This film was commissioned by Philips to portray the work of the Eindhoven factory which produces radio sets. The only constraint Philips put was that everything had to be shot inside the factory. Nothing could therefore be shown of the workers home conditions. Ivens intention was to construct, in a sense, a documentary "Modern Times", like Chaplin’s film, criticizing the domination of the machine in the capitalist organization of the labour process. Critics said at the time that the film was an act of accusation against the present economic system, denouncing the physical and moral ruin which threatens those workers who are victims of capitalist rationalization and those workers whom the machine has not yet freed from certain forms of labour.